Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Wearing a yarmulke, Geoffrey Modise Menachem Ramokgadi draws stares from most people he encounters, whether in his adopted country of Swaziland, his home town of Rustenburg, or in the synagogues and Jewish shops of Johannesburg.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

European nations must increase their efforts to ensure security for the continent’s Jews in the face of widespread anti-Semitism, the Council of the European Union said in a declaration that one Jewish group called “unprecedented”.

I am in Buenos Aires to report on the G20 world leaders summit. It has been a diplomatic test for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. It was his first international gathering after a damning Central Intelligence Agency report blamed him for ordering the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

South Africa woke up last week to yet another delegation of Hamas in the country. South Africa under the African National Congress (ANC) has always been the world’s “rogue democracy”, engaging with all manner of dictators and autocrats. But why the specific interest in the Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist organisation?

There is no doubt that the Jewish community should not only thank Bowmans for its report, but also compliment it on the amount of work conducted, and its investigative ingenuity in arriving at the conclusions it did in the Stan & Pete kashrut investigation.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Celebrating Israel's 67th Birthday in style

The Jews of Israel, South Africa and, indeed, worldwide will attend events to celebrate Israel’s 67th Independence Day next Wednesday. And, true to form, the SA Zionist Federation will be holding a dashing event at Yeshiva College for Joburg Jewish families that is guaranteed to continue their history of offering crowd-pleasers, including Israeli singing sensation, Gad Elbaz, pictured.

by
ANT KATZ | Apr 14, 2015

Yom Ha'atzmaut is the national day of Israel, commemorating the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

It is celebrated either on the 5th of Iyar, according to the Hebrew calendar, or on one of the preceding or following days, depending on which day of the week this date falls on.

RIGHT: David Ben-Gurion declaring independence beneath a large portrait of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism

The operative paragraph of the Declaration (pictured below) of the Establishment of State of Israel of 14 May 1948 expresses the declaration to be “by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly,” and concludes with the words of Ben-Gurion where he thereby declares the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

Johannesburg 2015

The 2015 Yom Ha’atzmaut event in Johannesburg will be held at the Yeshiva College campus from 6pm on Wednesday 22 April.

Fun for all

Tickets cost R50 for adults and R20 for children under 12 – and will go on sale at the gate from 5pm.

Among the available amenities at the event will be will be rides, food stalls and the Israeli singing sensation Gad Elbaz (pictured left) - and guests will also have a chance of winning a ticket to Israel.

Related reads

This original declaration of the State of Israel was drafted to ensure that a Jewish state would be in place – as envisaged by the UN, shortly before the expiration of the British Mandate in Palestine expired.

The Declaration

The first draft of the Declaration was written by Zvi Berenson; the second by: Moshe Shertok, David Remez, Felix Rosenblueth, Moshe Shapira and Aharon Zisling.

The third and final document was written by: David Ben-Gurion, Yehuda Leib Fishman, Aharon Zisling and Moshe Shertok.

History of YH

Yom Ha'atzmaut centres around the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jewish leadership led by future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on 14 May 1948. The mood outside of Ben-Gurion's home just prior to the declaration was joyous:

"The Jews of Palestine ... were dancing because they were about to realize what was one of the most remarkable and inspiring achievements in human history: A people which had been exiled from its homeland two thousand years before, which had endured countless pogroms, expulsions, and persecutions, but which had refused to relinquish its identity—which had, on the contrary, substantially strengthened that identity; a people which only a few years before had been the victim of mankind’s largest single act of mass murder, killing a third of the world’s Jews, that people was returning home as sovereign citizens in their own independent state," wrote a journalist who was present.

Independence was declared eight hours before the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, which was due to finish on 15 May 1948.

The new state was quickly recognised by the Soviet Union, the United States and many other countries, but not by the surrounding Arab states, which marched with their troops into the area of the former British Mandate.

Yom Ha’atzmaut is a celebration of Israel’s foundation whereas Yom Hazikaron is a commemoration of the cost we incur to ensure the continuance of Israel’s existence-the land of the “immortal” Jew.

All this being said next week is a perfect opportunity to honour that commitment. Come and join the community at Yeshiva college on the 21st of April at 18.30 in what will surely be an tear wrenching Yom Hazikaron ceremony, with Professor Shmuel Eidelman as a guest speaker; and on the 22nd of April, once again at Yeshiva college, for an evening that will remind you why we all love Israel so much in the first place.